The present invention relates to photometric devices, and more particularly, to a photometric device in which a photographic field is divided into a plurality of regions for a photometric operation, and a plurality of photoelectric outputs obtained from the various regions and the latitude data of the film being used are utilized to obtain the correct exposure output for the entire image. (As used herein, the "latitude" of a photographic film or the like means the range of brightness over which the film is responsive.)
In general, single-lens reflex cameras employ a photometric system in which mainly the brightness of an object at the center of the photographic field is sensed. However, this photometric system sometimes suffers from the drawback that it is difficult to obtain correct exposure values for objects of large contrast or objects of variable contrast. For instance, a photometric operation employed in the case where a person on a stage is spotlighted but the background is dark should be different from a photometric operation in the case where the person and the background are uniformly illuminated. The conventional photometric system can provide a correct exposure value in the latter case but not in the former. In such situations, and where the range of brightness of the object is smaller than the photometric range, the photographer must generally determine the exposure value by intuition and cannot determine the correct exposure value without using a spot photometer. The same difficulties occur in the case also where the object is not located at the center in taking pictures against a bright background.